Elements of Soviet Mind-control Schemes Exposed

When the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began engaging in horrific mind-control experiments starting in the early 1950s under the now partially exposed Project MKUltra, the Communist Party-run terror regime ruling the former Soviet Union had been working on such plots for decades. According to evidence in a recently released report by Serge Kernbach with Germany’s Research Centre of Advanced Robotics and Environmental Science, the Soviet regime poured at least $1 billion — probably much, much more — into research and programs often aimed at literally controlling the human mind and manipulating behavior.

Many of the programs continued long after the supposed collapse of the mass-murdering U.S.S.R. regime, too, Kernbach found. Also, in recent years, top Russian officials, including Vladimir Putin, have alluded to Moscow’s ongoing exploitation of the technology for military purposes. As part of its so-called terror war, the U.S. government’s Homeland Security apparatus has expressed interest in the research and its potential “security” applications as well. The Obama administration is also in the process of creating a “behavior” team to “nudge” the public into supporting its agenda.

Most of the Soviet documents related to the communist mind-control machinations are still classified, meaning that information on the worst atrocities, abuses, and advances in taking over people’s minds and behavior remains off limits to the public. However, even based on the publicly available information contained in the report, it is clear that the programs — like similar unlawful schemes being perpetrated by the CIA, often on unknowing victims — are deeply disturbing. Among other plots, the paper shows, the Soviet regime was investigating “psychotronics” and parapsychology, using various technologies in a bid to alter and dominate the human mind.

Kernbach’s report, dubbed “Unconventional Research in USSR and Russia,” relies primarily on Russian scientific publications, articles, and declassified documents describing some of the technology and research. “Since USSR had in fact no unsupported-by-government research, unlike Europe and USA, where such research can be supported by private funds, all these activities can be interpreted as government programs,” Kernbach wrote. “Several such governmental programs are not officially published up to now. For instance, documents on experiments performed in OGPU and NKVD [secret police and predecessors to the KGB] — even 80 years after — still remain classified.”

Using the information that is publicly available, however, Kernbach found evidence suggesting that a broad range of programs targeting the human mind was undertaken early on by the Soviet regime — starting as far back as 1917. One scheme, for example, involved attempts to remotely influence the brain, while others sought to pick up and analyze “biological emissions” coming from the mind. Yet another program focused on the effects and power of suggestion. Still another examined the biological effects of electromagnetic radiation on the nervous system.

While much of the research was conducted under the guise of science, it is also clear that the Soviet regime had ulterior motives. “The role of special services in shaping the USSR’ unconventional programs should be mentioned separately,” the paper noted. “Apparently, OGPU-NKVD was interested in the possibilities of this technology.” The military applications of such technologies and discoveries also played a crucial part in motivating Moscow’s tyrants to undertake the research.

Later on in Soviet history, after a period where the “unconventional research” was supposedly quashed, the regime’s programs also focused intensely on the development of mind-control technologies. According to documents cited in the paper, one key area of interest was the use of hypnotism and “biological radiation” to influence human test subjects. Even experiments involving the implantation of electrodes on the brain were conducted. By the early 1960s, the terror regime in Moscow was apparently determined to exploit the research for military purposes in particular. According to U.S. intelligence reports cited in Kernbach’s survey, the U.S.S.R. was operating more than 20 centers focused on studying paranormal phenomena and its potential exploitation.

In the paper, Kernbach noted that “it was found that the [electromagnetic] field, with certain parameters, can cause a variety of bio-physical and mental effects.” In other words, the human mind was successfully affected in the research, though how far it went remains unknown. “It can be assumed that the psycho-physiological effects of microwave emission were actively investigated during the [National Socialist, or Nazi] regime in Germany, and after 1945 the technology was adopted by the countries-winners,” Kernbach added, one of several references to Nazi research being exploited in Soviet and U.S. government mind-control schemes.

Other mind-control tactics explored by the mass-murdering Soviet regime, the paper notes, involved the use of psychotropic drugs to bend the subject’s mind. Similar studies were conducted by the U.S. government involving substances such as LSD and other mind-altering chemicals. According to declassified CIA documents, congressional investigations, and testimony from victims, other efforts to control and engineer human behavior explored by Washington, D.C., involved hypnosis, sexual abuse, and torture.

Vast amounts of data from Soviet mind-control programs remain classified. On the U.S. government side, meanwhile, then-CIA boss Richard Helms reportedly sought to obstruct congressional investigations by ordering all MKUltra documents to be destroyed. Still, at least two congressional committees investigating the CIA’s mind-control programs uncovered horrifying experiments, which were often performed on unwitting victims — in some cases, individuals confined in mental institutions, and even children.

Kernbach uncovered evidence more than three decades old suggesting that the schemes were being applied. “Over the past years, US researchers have confirmed the possibility of affecting functions of the nervous system by weak electromagnetic fields (EMFs), as it was previously said by Soviet researchers,” reads a 1982 article in a Russian science publication cited in the report. “EMFs may cause acoustic hallucination (’radiosound’) and reduce the sensitivity of humans and animals to some other stimuli, to change the activity of the brain (especially the hypothalamus and the cortex), to break the processes of formation processing and information storage in the brain. These nonspecific changes in the central nervous system can serve as a basis for studying the possibilities of the direct influence of EMFs on specific functions of CNS.”

As happened in the United States, and despite communist emphasis on materialism, Soviet mind-control research was also closely linked with the occult and other esoteric machinations. “It is necessary to note a large appearance of New Age literature after 1991,” the survey explained, with Soviet scientists involved in the schemes apparently particularly interested in such matters. One of the key influences on Russian researchers cited in Kernbach’s report is Helena P. Blavastsky, an extremely controversial Luciferian mystic widely viewed as being among the most influential occultists in history. The movement she founded, known as Theosophy, remains a major influence worldwide today.

Indeed, much of the Soviet research was aimed at understanding — and exploiting for military purposes — various alleged paranormal phenomena, including supposed psychic abilities, telekinesis, and more. Similarly, researchers say the U.S. government’s mind-control schemes were intricately tied to such occult themes as well, as exemplified by the crucial role played by senior U.S. military officer and admitted Satanist leader Michael Aquino, among others, in the efforts. The rabbit hole goes very deep, according to researchers and victims.

In recent years, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has also sought out Soviet mind-control developments for its terror war, even reportedly contracting with the Psychotechnology Research Institute in Moscow, as documented by Wired magazine in 2007. The institute uses technology and research based on the work of the late Igor Smirnov, a Soviet mind-control scientist described as “the father of psychotronic weapons,” or weapons aimed at controlling the human mind.

According to Wired, the outfit now focuses on, among other schemes, using subliminal messages to secretly change an individual’s personality or opinion without their knowledge. In the 1990s, even the FBI took an interest in the institute and its work. Just last year, meanwhile, the Obama administration was exposed assembling what it called a "behavioral insights team” to “nudge” Americans into supporting its controversial agenda using psychological manipulation.

In Russia, several top officials, including former KGB man and current President Vladimir Putin, have also hinted at the application of psychotronic weapons. “Space-based systems and IT tools, especially in cyberspace, will play a great, if not decisive role in armed conflicts,” the Russian strongman wrote last year. “In a more remote future, weapon systems that use different physical principles will be created (beam, geophysical, wave, genetic, psychophysical and other types of weapons). All this will provide fundamentally new instruments for achieving political and strategic goals in addition to nuclear weapons.”

The now-fired defense minister Anatoly Serdyukov also made similar remarks while in charge of Moscow’s defense ministry. “The development of weaponry based on new physics principles; direct-energy weapons, geophysical weapons, wave-energy weapons, genetic weapons, psychotronic weapons, etc., is part of the state arms procurement program for 2011-2020,” he was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti.

In his paper on unconventional research, despite advances in technology over the last two decades, Kernbach states that he does not believe human behavior can be controlled — yet. “However, we want to draw attention to the significant potential of a long-term use of these devices and the risk of unethical use of this technology,” he added. Kernbach also estimates that there are up to 500 Russian scientists still working on related research. As the “convergence” agenda between East and West marches onward, the potential implications of government mind-control efforts cannot be understated.

Alex Newman is a correspondent for The New American, covering economics, politics, and more. He can be reached at

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.